snowman41 wrote:Hey Solfege, saw your comment in the Patch discussion thread and figured I would respond here since there's probably a higher chance you'll see it, and also its pertinent to the guide.
Regarding the 3.3 Ice Elemental nerfs: Having to constantly spam Ice elementals was a massive pain, but the defensive boost felt quite noticeable while active. Though your point that since they end up getting oneshot in endgame anyways, this probably isnt too huge of a loss makes sense.
That said, Vengeful power and Living flame both got nice buffs, do you think Snow Queen still outclasses them or are they now worth using? Specifically Vengeful power with the damage reduction paired with max life looks competitive.
The Force blast changes and fusillade buff sound great though.
It wasn't so much that IEs get 1-shot end-game, it was that Melee Sorc was strong enough by that point that she didn't need summons anymore. Right now, I'll say Lightning/Cold is probably still the better end-game spec, but getting there will be harder.
The IE nerf affects a lot more than just Sorc tankiness. Part of the reason Frost Armor was so great was that it allowed for tanky summons without having to waste tons of hard points on them. This meant you could focus on building your Sorc instead of boosting summons. It also allowed for a wider variety of mercs, making Rogue Priestess one of the best mercs for a Sorc because of how well IE aura+Vindicate synergized with one another (a properly-built Priestess could do D-Fauzt with only Sorc summons to tank). Without Frost Armor, it throws the viability of that into question.
Vengeful Power:
As Hecht said, it's not much of a buff. You're losing 150% TCD aura, getting weaker+more expensive Blade Spirits, a weaker merc, and fewer meatshields overall. And all you're gaining is an extra 5% DR. Also, the Life boost is nothing. No matter which Tree combo you choose, you'll end up with roughly the same amount of total Life.
Living Flame:
It has 3 major problems. First, Sorcs will always have shit Life no matter what you do. When you're in a situation where you're being bombarded off-screen by enemies whose attacks can take roughly half your life per hit, and your summons aren't tanky enough to block those attacks, the difference between 10k and 12k Life is nothing. Second, Living Flame is worthless without significant investment. Which means it's nothing but a point sink early on. Third, Sorcs already have access to 2 instaheal sources. So why do you need regen? In the end, nothing Living Flame offers will be better than Def+DR for Sorcs.
Fusillade:
It was already strong. The Fusillade buff was a consolation prize, just like it was when they took away Stormblast from Khany.
What it basically boils down to is the IE nerf is a hard, across-the-board nerf for all Sorcs using the Cold Tree in an attempt to force more people to use Force Blast. Melee Sorc will survive, but it essentially killed Mana Sorc.
tl;dr
None of these changes made any of the other Trees more attractive. They only made Cold Tree less attractive.